Posted by
peripheral on Friday, July 09, 2010 6:45:00 AM
From My Perspective - - -
Is failure always final? Is failure always fatal? Can one who was
deemed a failure recover and gain some level of achievement and
success? Is failure a scar that never vanishes and brandishes one for
the rest of his/her life? In a publication: Why Smart Executives Fail
by Sidney Finkelstein – the following is stated – “What are the core
underlying reasons for why smart executives fail? What are the
destructive syndromes that cut across all types of great corporate
mistakes and are the real root cause of failure? We found corporate
failures to have many parents, but the most critical of these were
breakdowns in how executives perceived reality for their companies, how
people within an organization faced up to their reality, how
information and control systems in organizations were mismanaged, and
how organizational leaders adopted spectacularly unsuccessful
habits…The causes of failure are not because executives are
unintelligent…The causes of failure are not due to unforeseeable
events…The causes of failure are not executional errors; executional
errors are mere symptoms that hide a deeper explanation for why things
go wrong. The causes of failure are not any of the other simple
explanations that question executive motivation, leadership ability,
honesty, or resource abundance…”
The summary of Why Smart Executives Fail is given in this paragraph: “Executive mindset failures are at the root of most
large-scale business disasters. In fact, one of the inescapable
conclusions from the research program is that billions of dollars are
lost because of a kind of "cognitive failure." Executives will
regularly send their corporation off in completely the wrong direction
or fail to restructure it the way they should, because they have made a
fundamental error in the way they are thinking about the opportunities
and problems their business faces…” One can conclude that some of the
reasons for failure are: (1) the lack of Foundational Principles; (2)
the inability to be Flexible; (3) the perniciousness of “we know – you
don’t” that prevents corporate and administrative heads from being open
to a better course than the one being followed. Perniciousness means:
“that which causes insidious harm or ruin; that which ruinous;
injurious; hurtful; that which is deadly; fatal…” Proverbs 16:18
gives an underlying cause for personal and corporate failure: “Pride
goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
On a human level, it is easy to conclude that some people will probably
succeed and others will more than likely fail. There was a child who
was reared in a hole where he was told he was not wanted; was shown
evidence of what had been used to abort him; and who often was told
that he would never amount to anything. In such a situation, it would
be easy for one to surrender and to set out to live up to those words
and that expectation. This is perhaps one of the underlying causes of a
ghetto mentality. Children are birthed because they represent a welfare
amount and certain other benefits – not so much that they will be
trained and encouraged to escape that which is detrimental to any
degree of success. At any rate – the above child had a very few people
who made some effort in his behalf – to encourage him and spur him on
to be more than he had been told he would ever be – a school teacher; a
sanitation worker (who would be a lifetime friend); a woman who
patiently showed him a human love he had never really experienced.
There was also a spiritual challenge and commitment. Words of Scripture
that offered hope, such as Isaiah 40:28-30,
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting
God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow
weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall
faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted…” That partially
describes this person who felt he was unwanted and unneeded; without
any direction and lowly motivated. Was there any possibility such a
person could break his shackles of failure? Was there any light at the
end of his tunnel? Long story, short – he went on to earn three
degrees. The verse in Isaiah 40:31
has proven itself in his life – “but they who wait for the LORD shall
renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they
shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Failure
does not need to be final or fatal! You don’t have to be a zero –
nothing! God doesn’t make junk – and you were made in His image! Don’t
give up – not yet! Consider these things with me!